Disconnect

One of the rare films that directly responds to and expresses modern anxieties, this debut feature from director Henry Alex Rubin interweaves the stories of three sets of people, whose lives are upended through various bad things that happen over the Internet -- including bullying and identity theft. A fascinating and riveting thriller.

Even when Disconnect follows the path we expect it to follow, it does so in a way that keeps us intensely engaged. There wasn't a moment during this movie when I thought about anything other than this movie. Read full review

The film ominously conveys a world of too much information but too little communication, where people have become slaves to glowing hand-held devices that were designed to make life easier but have made it busier and more complicated. Read full review

Disconnect is naturally gripping. Using unforgiving closeups, Rubin pokes into unexpected corners— not least the different ways in which men and women respond to calamity — and never forces his story's social-media scares to improbable heights. Read full review

The film builds to a three-pronged tumultuous climax, shot in slow motion that could have been overwrought but somehow isn’t. Read full review

Characters are richly drawn and relatable, though at times stories teeter on melodrama. The overall effect, however, is powerful. Read full review

Disconnect is by turns frustrating and fascinating. Read full review

Bateman, in a rare dramatic role, is just tremendous, finding depths of emotion where they're least expected. Disconnect works they same way. Even when it trips on its ambitions, it hits home. Read full review

Despite occasional flaws, Disconnect is filled with fine performances, informed by an often sophisticated script and directed with passion. Read full review

It’s a blunt instrument of a movie, and often melodramatic. But it sometimes moves and often hits its target square on the nose. Read full review

As cautionary tales go, Disconnect is a pretty good one, but it’s not really a whole lot more than that. Read full review

The structure is sheer contrivance — three narratives intricately interlocked — while the plot amounts to a convenience store of variably credible, or borderline incredible, strands. Yet the film is impressive all the same. Read full review

If this strikes you as vaguely familiar, you’re right: Disconnect is a computer “Crash.” Read full review

Soulful though the film is, melodrama gradually sneaks in, and then it takes over. Read full review

Disconnect is an Eleanor Rigby movie. Look at all the lonely people. A "Crash" for the Internet age, Alex Henry Rubin's topical opus swoops down like an alien spaceship to investigate a disparate group of Earthlings living in close proximity in the suburbs of New York City. Read full review

Disconnect is far from a bad movie. It’s just better at melodrama than drama. Read full review

The film's message -- about how the Internet is sabotaging our real-life relationships -- doesn't resonate with absolute clarity, but Disconnect does a much more effective job than anyone could hope to do in 140 characters or less. Read full review

The fine cast pushes beyond the script’s limits, even if some, like Hope Davis as Ben’s mom, are mostly wasted. Read full review

Alas, the flick can't resist overheating. Paradoxically, when people finally do jump in their cars, curl their fists and grab their guns, we wish they'd retreat to the safety of their monitors. Read full review

Disconnect might play better a decade from now, when it's more clearly a compendium of contemporary fears rather than some dire expression of them. Read full review

Well-meaning but dated and frequently risible issue-drama. Read full review

Only Andrea Riseborough comes close to rising above it all, and even she’s undone by what may be the crassest climactic slo-mo montage ever. The lucky will have logged off by that point. Read full review

And come on, guys: There’s nothing cinematic about Googling. Read full review

Fails not so much because of its occasional self-seriousness or didacticism than it does from a scattered plot that makes the story's overriding theme or message difficult to grasp. Read full review